To call the struggle against terrorism “America’s War,” perhaps even a war at all, is to miss its full significance, argues one of the world’s most distinguished military historians. It is a global confrontation between those who believe in the values of the Enlightenment and those who detest and fear them. In this confrontation armed force must inevitably play a part, but it can never be won by militaries alone—not even those of the United States.

Socioeconomic Roots of Middle East Radicalism
Alan Richards

The sources of Middle East extremism are profoundly complex and intertwined, composed of economic, social, political, and cultural dimensions. As important as the socioeconomic and political aspects of the present crisis are, however, the cultural difficulties are equally challenging, perhaps uniquely so.

The Arab “Street” and the Middle East’s Democracy Deficit
Dale F. Eickelman

Rising education, easier travel, new communications media, and liberalizing voices are quickly making the Arab “street” a true “public sphere”—a force with which governments, and the West, will have to reckon. The good news, argues a scholar of the Muslim world, is that channels exist by which the West can address the Arab public. But that public, better informed, will be quick to notice gaps between statement and action.

Iraq and American Intervention

Give Peace a Chance
First, Try Coercive Diplomacy
Captain William S. Langenheim, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve

“Coercive diplomacy”—a range of nonmilitary options for increasing the pressure on a recalcitrant state, with credible force in the wings—is at this juncture a better option for the United States than a focus on unilateral intervention to topple the Iraqi regime. It may achieve the same ends, and even if it does not, the substantial attempt should elicit allied and regional support for whatever steps then become necessary.

Military Action against Iraq Is Justified
Robert F. Turner

The purpose of the United Nations, as set forth in Article 1 of its charter, is “to maintain international peace and security, and to that end, to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace.” The Security Council has made it clear that Saddam Hussein is a major threat to international peace and security.

It Is Time to Temper Our Excessive Interventionism
Doug Bandow

Threats today are very different from what they once were. Nuclear threats can be deterred or warded off; such conventional threats as exist are primarily to American allies—and the allies can handle them. Terrorism will require entirely different forces and responses. But the United States persists in an outmoded Cold War–era, interventionist posture that no longer fits the world environment.

Why Clear Analytical Thinking Matters

Thinking Out of the Box
Reading Military Texts from a Different Perspective
Lieutenant Colonel Phillip J. Ridderhof, U.S. Marine Corps

The “deconstruction” of texts—a postmodernist technique that denies the existence of objectively true meanings—can be usefully applied, with adaptations, to the military world. A Marine officer argues that it generates valuable insights by identifying everything that a document’s drafters thought most important, less important, and not important enough to mention.

National Interests
Grand Purposes or Catchphrases?
James F. Miskel

For thoroughly practical reasons, it would be wise to engage the public and Congress in a meaningful dialogue about what the national interests actually are. Projects that require protracted effort are simply not possible when national interests are so generally defined that they mean all things to all people.

In My View

Book Reviews

To Prevail: An American Strategy for the Campaign against Terrorism,
by Kurt M. Campbell and Michèle Flournoy et al.
reviewed by Jon Czarnecki

Strategy in the Contemporary World: An Introduction to Strategic Studies,
edited by John Baylis et al.
reviewed by Mark T. Clark

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics,
by John J. Mearsheimer
reviewed by Carnes Lord

While America Sleeps: Self-Delusion, Military Weakness, and the Threat to Peace Today,
by Donald Kagan and Fredrick W. Kagan
reviewed by Richard Norton

The Law of War,
by Ingrid Detter
reviewed by Greg O’Brien

Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces,
edited by Pavel Podvig
reviewed by Tom Fedyszyn

Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy,
by Mark M. Lowenthal
reviewed by W. H. Dalton

The Pueblo Incident: A Spy Ship and the Failure of American Foreign Policy,
by Mitchell B. Lerner
reviewed by Daniel J. Brennock

Sailors to the End: The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought It,
by Gregory A. Freeman
reviewed by James E. Hickey

An Ocean in Common: American Naval Officers, Scientists, and the Ocean Environment,
by Gary E. Weir
reviewed by Kenneth J. Hagan

Reluctant Allies: German-Japanese Naval Relations in World War II,
by Hans-Joachim Krug et al.
reviewed by Holger H. Herwig

The Destruction of the Bismarck
by Holger H. Herwig and David J. Bercuson
The Loss of the Bismarck: An Avoidable Disaster,
by Graham Rhys-Jones
reviewed by Carl O. Schuster

The First World War: To Arms,
by Hew Strachan
reviewed by Geoffrey Wawro

The Burning of Monterey: The 1818 Attack on California by the Privateer Bouchard,
by Peter Uhrowczik
reviewed by Xavier Maruyama